Pierre Pibarot (23 July 1916 – 26 November 1981) was a French football player and football manager.

Playing career

Born in

Alès Alès (; oc, Alès) is a commune in the Gard department in the Occitanie region in southern France. It is one of the sub-prefectures of the department. It was formerly known as ''Alais''. Geography Alès lies north-northwest of Nîmes, o ...

, France, Pibarot is a product of the

Olympique Alès Olympique Alès is a French association football club founded in 1923, based in the commune of Alès. The Cévennes club currently plays in Championnat National 3 the fifth division of the French football league system. The club in the past ...

youth programme. He left the club briefly in 1932 to play for the now-defunct sporting club attached to the lycée Victor Hugo-de-Marseille. He returned to Olympique Alès in 1934, and was part of the team that won the Ligue 2 championship the following season. His promising playing career was cut short by a leg injury he received at the

Battle of Narvik The Battles of Narvik were fought from 9 April to 8 June 1940, as a naval battle in the Ofotfjord and as a land battle in the mountains surrounding the north Norwegian town of Narvik, as part of the Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War. ...

in 1940; his short-lived return to professional play for Nancy was terminated when he turned manager in 1944, at the age of 29, after being part of the

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

winning Nancy side.

Post-playing career

His old club Olympique Alès offered him the manager's position in 1945; he used the following four years to perfect the 'line defence" technique that would make him famous, and in the process took Olympique Alès back to the first division for the second time in its history. In 1949, he moved to

Nîmes Olympique Nîmes Olympique (commonly referred to as simply Nîmes) is a French association football club based in Nîmes. The club was founded on 10 April 1937 and currently plays in Ligue 2, the second level of French football. Until November 2022, ...

, which team too he took up to Ligue 1, before being tapped to bring his skills to the France national team in 1955. He had already been involved as a technical strategist with the team as early as their friendly against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1951. He ended his career with stints at

RCF Paris Racing Club de France Football (, also known as Racing Paris, RCF Paris, Matra Racing, Racing Club, or Racing) is a French association football club based in Colombes, a suburb of Paris. Racing was founded in 1882 as a multi-discipline spo ...

. In recognition of his contributions to the science of defence and his excellence as a trainer, the main stadium at France's football academy at Clairefontaine was named for him. The stadium of Olympique Alès, where he is something of a hometown hero, is also named for him in memory of his contributions to the team as player and manager.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pibarot, Pierre 1916 births 1981 deaths People from Alès French men's footballers Olympique Alès players French football managers France national football team managers 1954 FIFA World Cup managers Nîmes Olympique managers French military personnel of World War II INF Vichy managers Racing Club de France Football managers Men's association football defenders Footballers from Gard